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NBA All-Star Predictions: 5th Update

With 11 weeks of the NBA season gone by, and All-Star voting officially underway, it’s time to get to our 5th All-Star predictions update (the 2nd to last update before the Starters are announced).

Conveniently, the NBA just released the 1st returns of the all star voting today (after our 5th round of updates was submitted) and they look like this:

Once the Starters are announced on January 24th, all of the 76th Sense team member’s starters will be locked in. From there, we’ll have one last update to the reserves prior to them being announced on January 31st.

Scoring to determine the All-Star Predictions winner will go as follows:

Team Captain: 3 points

Starter: 2 points

Reserve: 1 point

Draft: 1 point per player on the correct team (East captain team vs. West captain team)

So let’s jump in:

Hurrikahane:

Team Embiid:

Starter 1: Joel Embiid

Starter 2: Kevin Durant

Starter 3: Russell Westbrook

Starter 4: Kawhi Leonard

Starter 5: Kemba Walker

Bench 1: Victor Oladipo (5th update swap) Ben Simmons

Bench 2: Steph Curry

Bench 3: Jrue Holiday

Bench 4: Karl-Anthony Towns

Bench 5: DeMar Derozan

Bench 6: Jimmy Butler

Bench 7: Kyle Lowry

Team LeBron:

Starter 1: LeBron James

Starter 2: Anthony Davis

Starter 3: Giannis Antetokounmpo

Starter 4: James Harden

Starter 5: Ben Simmons (5th update swap)Victor Oladipo

Bench 1: Damian Lillard

Bench 2: Nikola Jokic (5th update)Rudy Gobert

Bench 3: Andre Drummond

Bench 4: Blake Griffin

Bench 5: Paul George

Bench 6: Kyrie Irving

Bench 7: John Wall

Pup:

Team Giannis:

Starter 1: Giannis Antetokounmpo

Starter 2: Anthony Davis

Starter 3: Joel Embiid

Starter 4: James Harden

Starter 5: Kyrie Irving (5th update swap) Victor Oladipo

Bench 1: Russell Westbrook

Bench 2: Kemba Walker

Bench 3: Paul George

Bench 4: Nikola Vucevic

Bench 5: Khris Middleton

Bench 6: DeMar DeRozan

Bench 7: Jimmy Butler

Team LeBron:

Starter 1: LeBron James

Starter 2: Kevin Durant

Starter 3: Ben Simmons

Starter 4: Kawhi Leonard

Starter 5: Steph Curry

Bench 1: Damian Lillard

Bench 2: Nikola Jokic

Bench 3: Mike Conley (5th update)Chris Paul

Bench 4: Blake Griffin

Bench 5: Tobias Harris

Bench 6: Victor Oladipo (5th update swap) Kyrie Irving

Bench 7: Bradley Beal

Marcus:

Team Giannis:

Starter 1: Giannis Antetokounmpo

Starter 2: Joel Embiid

Starter 3: Anthony Davis

Starter 4: Ben Simmons

Starter 5: James Harden

Bench 1: Klay Thompson

Bench 2: Nikola Jokic

Bench 3: Russell Westbrook

Bench 4: Andre Drummond

Bench 5: Kyrie Irving

Bench 6: Paul George (5th update) LaMarcus Aldridge

Bench 7: Jimmy Butler (5th update) Gordon Hayward

Team LeBron:

Starter 1: LeBron James

Starter 2: Kevin Durant

Starter 3: Steph Curry

Starter 4: Kawhi Leonard

Starter 5: Kemba Walker

Bench 1: Jayson Tatum

Bench 2: Blake Griffin

Bench 3: Rudy Gobert

Bench 4: Damian Lillard

Bench 5: Victor Oladipo

Bench 6: DeMar DeRozan

Bench 7: Nikola Vucevic

NBA 1st Returns Takeaways:

Sixers fans are hitting the polls hard

As Sixers fans here at the 76th Sense, we loved seeing that our Big 3 are all in the top 8 vote getters of the East. JoJo looks to be a lock for a starting position with a massive lead on Butler (who’s currently 4th in frontcourt votes). Simmons isn’t out of the running for the 2nd guard spot (Kyrie seems to have the 1st locked up) but Sixers fans have their work cut out for them if he’s going to pass Wade and Kemba (GET OUT AND VOTE SIXERS FANS!!)

Luka Doncic is 2nd in West frontcourt voting???

Don’t get me wrong, Doncic is having a great rookie campaign, but him being 2nd in voting, puts him ahead of guys like Durant, AD, PG13, Jokic, Gobert, Big KAT, etc. This is purely a popularity pick as his number and team success don’t add up to his current voting position

Wade’s Last Dance

It looks like D-Wade’s farewell tour is going to earn him a starting position in this year’s All-Star game. Don’t get me wrong, Wade’s had a great career and I have no problem with the farewell tour, but his numbers don’t nearly equate to an All-Star roster spot, let alone a starting position. If these 1st return vote hold up, he’ll be taking a spot from someone who’s much more deserving as far as on court performance goes

Rose’s Redemption

It’s been great to see the bounce back season DRose is currently having, but just like Wade, his numbers combined with his team’s current standings don’t equate to to his current vote getting position. He currently sits 2nd for guards in the West ahead of guys like Harden, Westbrook, and Lillard who at this point are much more deserving.

Could Kyrie Captain the East?

Here at the 76th Sense, we all kind of thought Giannis would be a lock for the East captain (but all hoped Embiid could make a run at it and I even picked him as my captain). I think we all sort of underestimated Kyrie and his popularity among NBA fans. While it still looks like Giannis is going to take the East, Kyrie is only 80,000 votes behind him right now…..

We’ll have our last update before voting ends the week of the 14th, but until then, let’s get Embiid and Simmons in the starting lineup Sixers fans!!!